3 shot at Florida mall as panicked crowd stampedes for cover
Shoppers ran for cover, dashing into stores, storage rooms and closets after three people were shot during an argument at Aventura Mall.
Two groups of shoppers started arguing outside the Hugo Boss and Louis Vuitton stores when one showed a weapon and another pulled his and began firing, said Aventura police Major Michael Bentolila.
Police were still searching Saturday evening for the man who fired. None of the injuries were life-threatening, police said.
Derek Smart, who works near the mall, said he was inside when he heard gunfire from about 100 to 200 feet away. Pandemonium erupted within seconds with people yelling and children crying as they sought to get out of the center of the mall near the food court area. People fell onto one another, dropping their purses, belongings and shoes as they tried to escape, he said.
Smart said he ducked for cover behind a set of cabinets with a friend. With his hand on his phone, he lifted his arm above the cabinet to record the chaos.
“There were so many kids screaming,” he said. “It was very traumatic. A lot of people were crying. It was so frantic,” Smart said.
The first social-media transmissions reported the shooting about 3:50 p.m. About 5:20 p.m., when the situation seemed to be clear, Smart said he grabbed his friend’s hand and made a bee-line for the exit doors. A crowd that had been back at the far end of the food court followed, he said.
One shopper told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he was standing in line to enter the Louis Vuitton store when he noticed three men casing the area, looking for someone or something. He then saw the three men approach a group of four people, and one of them threw down a stuffed bear he was holding and pulled out a gun, according to the shopper, who asked not to be identified.
The shopper warned other shoppers in line that the confrontation could get worse. One man in line reached down and grabbed an infant out of a stroller. Then shots rang out.
The mall was packed at the time.
“I’ve never seen the mall like this for Mother’s Day,” said Matias Aubi, who runs an ice cream kiosk in the mall. “All the people came — like 500 people — came running. People fell on the floor. Shoes everywhere. Like people left their shoes.”
Next thing he saw was police with long guns.
Cynthia Parlin of Savannah, Ga., said she heard four blasts of a gun. She said workers scrambled to pull down the security screens while telling people to take cover in the back of the store.
Saul Tinoco grabbed his sister Maria by the shirt and told her to run when she saw a teenager collapse to the floor yelling that he had been shot. The teen’s family started dragging him toward an emergency exit but kept running farther away.
They saw a lady collapsed and a man yelling that she wasn’t responding.
“She looked limp,” Tinoco said.
He saw people running down the up escalator as a little boy fell down. Then he heard a second round of shots.
“Hectic, shoes everywhere, drinks on the floor,” he said. “So scary, it happened so fast. Just trying to get out of there. Could have easily been us made us panic even more.”
Saturday night, it was announced the mall would resume normal hours on Sunday, opening at noon.
Last May, a shooting inside the Nordstrom store at Aventura Mall wounded 2 people who were shot on the first floor, near the men’s department. In that incident, an argument broke out between four people who knew each other and one person was taken into custody.
Eileen Kelley can be reached at 772-925-9193 or ekelley@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @reporterkell.
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